The Dismantling of ObamaCare - Ongoing Updates.

[bluemarlin08]

I just personally called Mayo Clinic here in Jax yesterday. A client wanted silver sneakers and was refusing to spend money on a Supp plan until I mentioned that she would have to drop her doctors at Mayo Clinic and she can't go there for surgeries, cancer or anything as well.
So we called them and they confirmed that they will take Medicare and PPO's out of network. Of course they do not accept assignment to Medicare so there would be an excess charge.

Walked out with a plan F in my hand

So what does that mean. If I have regular medicare and plan g I would have to pay cash fpr the upcharge?

 

[Yagents]

Ann is referencing the Mayo CEO recent speech.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/art...ntent=20170315-NEWS-170319942&utm_campaign=am

The Mayo Clinic wants to “prioritize” commercially insured patients over those covered by Medicare and Medicaid, according to a speech by its CEO late last year, raising concerns about medical ethics and the broader repercussions of a highly regarded health system's willingness to boldly articulate these preferences.

Mayo to give nod to privately insured over Medicaid patients - StarTribune.com

 

[somarco]

Ned, G covers the xs charges.

 

[nylife11023]

NYLife11023, Medicare and Medicaid reduces the doctor & hospital bills down to a bare bones allowance,...

The only way doctors and hospitals could survive with that small allowance is to shift costs onto people with private insurance.

It is not sustainable. You know it and I know it.

If 100% of the population joined that plan, nobody would be left to pay the costs. So, your Grandpa's premium would quadruple (or more).

You are going to tell me that we don't raise enough money via state and federal taxes to provide free medical services to every citizen?

Do you have any idea how much money is raised in state and federal taxes each year? If we cut the budget of every Federal government department (including defense) by 60% how much medical care a year would that buy this nation?

Medicare is a major cost-shifter. It charges low premiums, low deductibles, and pays low reimbursement rates to providers. Then the rest of us make up for it in cost-shifting and higher taxes. Cost-shifting is not an answer.

So let us shift our financial resources to cover the cost.

It hides the problem.

I work in M&A and as such I do a lot of financial modeling... basically it is an effort trying to answer (or quantify) "IF this, then WHAT?" kind of questions in order to determine if a merger or acquisition makes sense. If we move this chess piece over to here, what happens to those chess pieces over there?

I agree that life is not a zero-sum game. But just for fun let's make believe it is for the moment.

What if you built a 'model' where there was no private insurance (and, of course no agents selling it.) There would be no bottomless pit of money to pay the exorbitant costs of health care. There are lots of variables to think about. Would providers leave the field? Would anyone make the investments in medical machinery or drug research? Even if major budget shifts were made, how much in additional taxes might be needed? What would a childbirth cost compared to now? What would a dose of Lipitor cost?

What would your model look like if we we left vet benefits and social security alone and cut out unemployment coverage, agricultural subsidies, foreign aid, as well as 60% of everything else? What if we re-purpose Medicare spending?

We have a great medical delivery system... best in the world... but we obviously can't afford it with the current allocation of resources. So let's change the allocations.

When the new administration and congress came into office I was expecting that there would be major changes... that they were going to cure the disease, not just put a bandage on it.

I was optimistic that with the failure of Obamacare and the new "team" of leaders that there was the political will (as well as the economic necessity) to solve big problems, the cost of medical care being the biggest.

Maybe it will take a major cataclysmic event to create the willingness for change. As a reader of history the two events that profoundly changed this country such that completely new models were were created to replace the old ones was the Great Depression and the civl rights movement.

What will be next?

 

[ARus]

It is not sustainable. You know it and I know it.




You are going to tell me that we don't raise enough money via state and federal taxes to provide free medical services to every citizen?

Do you have any idea how much money is raised in state and federal taxes each year? If we cut the budget of every Federal government department (including defense) by 60% how much medical care a year would that buy this nation?



So let us shift our financial resources to cover the cost.




I work in M&A and as such I do a lot of financial modeling... basically it is an effort trying to answer (or quantify) "IF this, then WHAT?" kind of questions in order to determine if a merger or acquisition makes sense. If we move this chess piece over to here, what happens to those chess pieces over there?

I agree that life is not a zero-sum game. But just for fun let's make believe it is for the moment.

What if you built a 'model' where there was no private insurance (and, of course no agents selling it.) There would be no bottomless pit of money to pay the exorbitant costs of health care. There are lots of variables to think about. Would providers leave the field? Would anyone make the investments in medical machinery or drug research? Even if major budget shifts were made, how much in additional taxes might be needed? What would a childbirth cost compared to now? What would a dose of Lipitor cost?

What would your model look like if we we left vet benefits and social security alone and cut out unemployment coverage, agricultural subsidies, foreign aid, as well as 60% of everything else? What if we re-purpose Medicare spending?

We have a great medical delivery system... best in the world... but we obviously can't afford it with the current allocation of resources. So let's change the allocations.

When the new administration and congress came into office I was expecting that there would be major changes... that they were going to cure the disease, not just put a bandage on it.

I was optimistic that with the failure of Obamacare and the new "team" of leaders that there was the political will (as well as the economic necessity) to solve big problems, the cost of medical care being the biggest.

Maybe it will take a major cataclysmic event to create the willingness for change. As a reader of history the two events that profoundly changed this country such that completely new models were were created to replace the old ones was the Great Depression and the civl rights movement.

What will be next?

You are touching something substantial! I like it.

 

[somarco]

Arus, what part of the Constitution requires the federal govt to provide health care? I must have been absent the day we studied the Constitution.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,

 

[kgmom219]

Arus, what part of the Constitution requires the federal govt to provide health care? I must have been absent the day we studied the Constitution.

The 28th amendment

 

[nylife11023]

Arus, what part of the Constitution requires the federal govt to provide health care? I must have been absent the day we studied the Constitution.

What part of "promote the general welfare" do you not understand?

 

[ARus]

Section 8
1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

This is what I found. I think it is enough. Is it?

 

[somarco]

Sorry, Arus, I don't see any reference to providing health care for the citizens.

Care to try again?